Matt Holliday

Matt Holliday returned to the St. Louis Cardinals’ lineup Monday after missing six starts with a left quadriceps injury. Holliday was batting .347, second in the National League behind teammate Lance Berkman’s .354 average, entering Monday’s game against the San Francisco Giants. The Cardinals were 4-2 without their cleanup hitter, winning series at San Diego and Colorado. Holliday made one appearance in the six games, drawing an intentional walk Friday night at Colorado.

Adam Wainwright threw a four-hitter and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres 4-0 on Tuesday night. It was his first shutout victory since Aug. 6, 2010, and third in his career. Wainwright (3-5), who missed the 2011 season with elbow ligament replacement surgery, struck out nine and walked one while throwing 111 pitches. He retired the first eight batters and allowed just one runner to reach third base. Carlos Beltran had two hits and two RBIs and Matt Holliday added two hits and an RBI for the Cardinals.

DENVER - What? No movie crew? See, this is what happens when you win it all under the simple guise of just being the best team, absent the melodrama. You sweep the Rockies and neither Jimmy Fallon nor Drew Barrymore is anywhere in sight. This time the wait was only 3 percent as long as the last one. We didn't have to raid nursing homes to find people who actually saw the Red Sox win their last World Series. You're probably one yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the experience wasn't the same.

San Diego manager Bud Black said his team caught St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright on the wrong night. Wainwright threw a four-hitter and the Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres 4-0 on Tuesday. It was his first shutout victory since Aug. 6, 2010, and third in his career. Wainwright (3-5), who missed 2011 with elbow ligament replacement surgery, struck out nine and walked one while throwing 111 pitches. He retired the first eight batters and allowed just one runner to reach third base.

Matt Holliday was in the St. Louis Cardinals' lineup for their must-win Game 4 of the NL division series against the Philadelphia Phillies. Manager Tony La Russa made out two lineup cards prior to Wednesday's game, one with Holliday in it and one without him. The star outfielder has been out because of an injured right middle finger. Holliday told reporters after taking batting practice that he felt well enough to play. Holliday batted fifth behind Lance Berkman. Holliday had a numbing injection for the tendon injury Tuesday and got a pinch-hit single in the eighth inning of...

Wilson Alvarez pitched perfect ball into the sixth inning before Chris Stynes reached on an infield hit -- Pittsburgh's only runner of the night -- and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Pirates, 4-0, last night in Pittsburgh. Alvarez (1-0), making his first start this season following eight relief appearances, combined with Guillermo Mota on the one-hitter, helping the NL West leaders improve to 18-10. Stynes led off the sixth with a hard grounder between first and second that second baseman Jose Hernandez knocked down but couldn't make a play on. He was sacrificed to second but was stranded when Tike...

PHILADELPHIA - Bandbox or not, this was no day for hitters. Jeff Francis held the league's highest-scoring team in check, and the Colorado Rockies took advantage of one shaky inning by Cole Hamels to beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2, in Game 1 of their National League Division Series yesterday. "Who would've thought a good old-fashioned National League game would break out in this ballpark?" Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. Making just the second postseason appearance in their 15-year history, the Rockies played like October regulars.

NEW YORK - Jimmy Rollins won the National League Most Valuable Player award yesterday, edging Matt Holliday in a close race after propelling the Philadelphia Phillies to their first playoff berth in 14 years with his speed and steady all-around play. The Gold Glove shortstop received 16 of 32 first-place votes and finished with 353 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. "I had a real big smile on my face, to make it simple. I was excited but I wasn't quite sure what to feel," Rollins said on a conference call from California.

Matt Holliday was determined to try anything to lift the St. Louis Cardinals out of their recent funk. The home run worked best. The outfielder, with high socks and a new pair of pants, hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning that helped the Cardinals snap a season-high seven-game skid with a 5-4 win over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday. Holliday and three others starters — Ryan Theriot, Skip Schumaker and Yadier Molina — wore their socks up near the knees in an effort to shake the bad luck.

Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday had an appendectomy yesterday and the team is unsure how long he will be out. General manager John Mozeliak said the surgery in St. Louis is not an emergency procedure, and that he’ll have an idea today how long the 31-year-old outfielder will be sidelined. Holliday was 3 for 4 and hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning of a 5-3, 11-inning loss to San Diego Thursday. Holliday left Busch Stadium complaining of stomach discomfort.

Carlos Beltran drove in a career-best seven runs with a pair of three-run home runs and RBI single in the first three innings, leading the way as the St. Louis Cardinals punished A.J. Burnett and the Pittsburgh Pirates 12-3 on Tuesday night. Rookie Lance Lynn (5-0) joined Steve Shields as the major leagues' only five-game winners, allowing three hits and two runs in 6 2-3 innings with six strikeouts to beat the Pirates for the second time in three starts. Lynn has a 1.61 ERA as the replacement starter for Chris Carpenter, sidelined indefinitely with nerve issues in his right shoulder.

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Charlie Morton earned the nickname "Ground Chuck" last season for his ability to get grounders and keep the ball in the park. But as Morton discovered during Tuesday night's 10-7 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, when he's up in the strike zone, the ball can go a long way. Morton (1-2) allowed just six homers last season, the fewest in the majors among pitchers with at least 100 innings. The second one he's served up this year was David Freese's tiebreaking, three-run shot to right-center in the fifth, Freese's sixth overall...

Alfonso Soriano hit a game-ending RBI single in the 10th inning and the Chicago Cubs beat St. Louis 3-2 on Wednesday night, ending the Cardinals' run of 13 consecutive winning series. Tony Campana sparked the winning rally with a one-out single off Fernando Salas (0-1). Campana then stole second in a close call that led to the first ejection for Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. After Starlin Castro struck out, Bryan LaHair was walked intentionally before Soriano hit a full-count pitch off second baseman Tyler Greene and into the outfield.

There was one bright spot for the St. Louis Cardinals as they fumed about a pair of close calls in another dramatic loss to the Chicago Cubs. Adam Wainwright looked great. Wainwright pitched six solid innings Tuesday night, but the Cardinals went on to a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs that ended their run of 13 consecutive winning series. "He pitched great," said teammate Matt Holliday, who put St. Louis in front with a two-run homer in the eighth inning. "That was great.

DENVER - What? No movie crew? See, this is what happens when you win it all under the simple guise of just being the best team, absent the melodrama. You sweep the Rockies and neither Jimmy Fallon nor Drew Barrymore is anywhere in sight. This time the wait was only 3 percent as long as the last one. We didn't have to raid nursing homes to find people who actually saw the Red Sox win their last World Series. You're probably one yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the experience wasn't the same.

St. Louis pitcher Kyle Lohse has reached the point of spring where he's trying to bring everything together. The combination looked good Sunday. Lohse allowed two runs and five hits in six innings and the Cardinals beat the Minnesota Twins 9-2. "Each of the last starts I had something I wanted to concentrate on and today was kind of a mix of all," Lohse said. "I was able to drop some good curveballs in. My slider was really good. My change-up was good. I was just continually trying to locate the fastball better and better.

Adam Wainwright threw a four-hitter and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres 4-0 on Tuesday night. It was his first shutout victory since Aug. 6, 2010, and third in his career. Wainwright (3-5), who missed the 2011 season with elbow ligament replacement surgery, struck out nine and walked one while throwing 111 pitches. He retired the first eight batters and allowed just one runner to reach third base. Carlos Beltran had two hits and two RBIs and Matt Holliday added two hits and an RBI for the Cardinals.

San Diego manager Bud Black said his team caught St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright on the wrong night. Wainwright threw a four-hitter and the Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres 4-0 on Tuesday. It was his first shutout victory since Aug. 6, 2010, and third in his career. Wainwright (3-5), who missed 2011 with elbow ligament replacement surgery, struck out nine and walked one while throwing 111 pitches. He retired the first eight batters and allowed just one runner to reach third base.

To Johan Santana and the New York Mets, this was a most pleasant spring sight. The lefty ace returned to the mound for his first game against major league hitters in 18 months and pitched two scoreless innings Tuesday as a Mets split squad beat the St. Louis Cardinals 8-6. Santana walked his first batter on five pitches. But a single marked the only other runner against Santana, who threw 17 of 29 pitches for strikes. The two-time Cy Young winner last pitched to big league hitters on Sept.

As The Shortstop Position Turns. It was a revolving door at Fenway Park under former Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, and it looks as though that may be the case again under Ben Cherington, who last night traded veteran Marco Scutaro to the Colorado Rockies for 26-year-old righthander Clayton Mortensen, who will be thrown into the starting rotation competition. "Marco, last year, played very well, especially the last couple of months of the season, and I know Ben felt the same way," said manager Bobby Valentine.